Thoughts on Doctor Who: Season 9

I’m an only child, but I’ve managed to find family in the geek community. My sister geeks and I have created this site, but that doesn’t mean we don’t value our brother geeks as well. I’ve asked my favorite baby brother geek, Brandon, to share his thoughts on the latest season of Doctor Who, which recently ended. Since I am the most outspoken Whovian around here, I thought it might be nice to hear from someone else. Brandon and I always talk Who as well as all other things geek, so I’m incredibly pleased to introduce him to the SisterGeeks community. -T. Mack

***SOME SEASON 9 SPOILERS AHEAD***

Doctor Who is always something I look forward to watching, be it a brand new episode or just marathoning old episodes. But this season I experienced something I never have with the show… An incredible lack of excitement. I found myself not only barely looking forward to the next episode, but forgetting to watch and eventually falling behind in my scheduled Who time. That being said, this season really wasn’t all bad. There were actually some very good moments sprinkled throughout it.

Let it be known that I Believe Capaldi is a great actor and has successfully put his own twist on the Doctor. Unfortunately this season–and to be honest the last season as well–was heavily geared toward support characters instead of the Doctor himself. So we didn’t really get to see what kind of person, or Doctor, he was until near the end of season 9. This wasn’t all completely negative. We were introduced to some great characters like Missy and Ashildr. The problem we run into is that the episodes tend to focus more on those supporting characters, and they become more entertaining than the Doctor. I believe that to be a bad formula for Doctor Who.

Michelle Gomez put on a phenomenal performance as Missy in the first two episodes of the season that brought back the deranged father of the Daleks, Davros. Missy stole the show easily, taking the spotlight from the emotionally conflicted Doctor. Her presence was bigger and far more eccentric than the Doctor, despite his random performance on a tank in the middle of a roman coliseum. Ashildr was a great addition, bringing another character that has all the ability to become a potentially fantastic reoccurring character with so much room to develop.

I believe a lot of the issues with this current season of Doctor Who is simply the stories. Most of the stories seemed like set ups specifically designed to create more worlds, villains, and acquaintances to incorporate into Who lore. This is actually fantastic. As much as we love the oldies like Daleks and Cybermen, it’s always great to have some fresh new material. After all, we all have a little love and a lot of fear for the Weeping Angels, introduced only recently during the Tennant times. However, the stories of this season seem a whole lot darker and complicated than in past times. The episode, Sleep No More, was actually terrifying and I’m a 20 year old man. While Doctor Who has traditionally been a family show, I can’t imagine how little kids could have viewed that episode. A lot of the episodes this season didn’t really make much sense. And many things, like the subplot of The Hybrid were never really concluded. It’s true that confusing is a pretty typical descriptor for Doctor Who, like in the case of 9’s Bad Wolf, 10’s Doctor Donna, and 11’s cracks in the wall. The difference is that all of those plots were completely resolved, whereas the Hybrid was never really answered.

I don’t want to sound completely negative about this season, because it ended on a far more satisfying note than I expected. For starters THE SUNGLASSES ARE GONE!!!!! In its place we got a really cool, intense-looking new screwdriver, which was so seriously cool! We also got the long-awaited farewell with Clara. I’ve wanted Clara’s run to end for a while and I agree with T. Mack that last year’s Christmas special was the perfect way to end her story. But alas, we had to endure another season of Clara. In the end, her official goodbye was bittersweet for me. On the bright side, due to the Doctor forgetting her, we don’t have to worry about an unnecessarily emotional Doctor next season. Unfortunately giving a zombie Clara–yes she’s a straight up zombie–and immortal Ashildr a TARDIS means there’s a very solid chance Clara could be back, which could either be very good or very bad. But for now she’s gone and the Doctor has his screwdriver again! It might be confusing as Hell and not make much sense if you think too long about it, but it looks like Doctor Who is attempting to become the show we fell in love with years ago. And now, with the announcement of the amazing River Song’s return, anything can happen!

Have you watched Season 9 yet? What were your thoughts? And are you excited about the return of River Song? Tell me what you think in the comments.